


Somewhere in Northern Italy

by andrewminyrd



Category: The Ultimate Sidemen
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Mutual Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-03
Updated: 2020-03-12
Packaged: 2021-02-23 03:43:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23005210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/andrewminyrd/pseuds/andrewminyrd
Summary: Chris has been in love with Harry for ages. Now they’re on a skiing trip together. The perfect opportunity, right?
Relationships: Chris Dixon/Harry Lewis
Comments: 2
Kudos: 22





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> anonymous on tumblr asked for something fluffy - we're getting there, i swear

“Lads it’s time for the après-ski bar, I’m tired,” Will announced while strapping on his snowboard. They were sitting in the snow, getting ready to go down the hill for the who-knows-how-manyeth time today. ‘They’ were a rag-tag team of Youtubers who had made the splendid decision of going on a skiing holiday together. None of them actually skied though and they definitely spent more time in bars than on the slopes.

“That is the best idea you’ve had today,” said Chip who was already on his feet and adjusting his goggles.

“Nah, mate! The sun isn’t even setting yet. We’ve got to use our time here,” came from Harry of all people. Normally Harry was the first to jump at an offer of alcohol and music.

Chris had to agree. “I’m with Harry on this one.” He for one had come on this trip to snowboard, since it was the only time a year, he could practice his actually quite impressive snowboarding. Cal and Theo sided with Will as well and thus the group split up. Harry and Chris would go for one more ride and meet with the other guys after.

It was a nice day to snowboard. The sun was shining in their faces on the way down and the snow was soft and pliable. Since the regular slopes had gotten boring in the span of the last few days, they used the small pathways on the sidelines of the slopes. They were full of jumps and drops others before them had carved out.

Chris managed to only land on his bum once before arriving back at the bottom. Seeing as there were barely any people waiting by the lift, their friends seemingly weren’t the only ones swapping snowboards for beers. 

A hand suddenly grabbed Chris’ shoulder. As he looked over, he recognised Harry who was holding onto him for balance.

“Man, I can never get these straps to open.” Harry finally freed his foot and they slid through the turnstiles to the gondolas. Chris absentmindedly rubbed his shoulder were Harry’s hand had just been.

Normally there was space for six people in one gondola but since barely anyone was getting on, Chris and Harry had one to themselves. Either one of them took a bench on either side of the gondola. Harry immediately put his feet up on it but took them down apologetically as he noticed a lift attendant giving him a stern look. “You have a gondola to yourself _one time_ and you can’t even enjoy it,” muttered Harry and orderly put his two feet on the ground. Chris smirked. Harry, ever the child, sulked.

“I betcha the others will already be hammered when we join them,” said Chris.

“Probably,” mused Harry. “You can definitely drink a decent amount of shots in half an hour.”

“You would know.”

Pretending to be annoyed Harry retorted, “As if you don’t.”

“True,” said Chris with a conceding smack of his lips. “And the cranberry shots at that place really bang. Maybe we _are_ missing out.”

“Pfff, we still have all night. It’s only four-thirty.”

They were silent after that. Chris looked out the window watching the white landscape pass by. At the highest point, he started to wonder, “What do you think would happen if we just dropped down right here right now?” And as if he had spoken directly to the ski-lift-gods the gondola stopped. Right there right then.

“Oh my god,” exclaimed Chris “I’m a cable car whisperer.” 

While Chris took the situation with humour, Harry paled. “What the fuck, mate?”

“Uhh, looks like we’re going to plummet to our deaths,” Chris said jokingly and rocked slightly to make his statement even eerier. The gondola amplified the gentle rocks and started swinging noticeably.

“Stop doing that,” said Harry, somewhat green in his face.

This only spurred Chris on. He got up to put more momentum into the swing. He knew the ski lift was safe. Everything was built with maximum security in mind. The imagined scenario he had predicted a moment earlier was impossible. It was just a little fun.

“No seriously Chris, stop!” Harry’s knuckles were white where he was holding onto the bench.

The use of his name finally got to Chris. Harry looked ill at ease, he was blankly staring at the floor and breathing shallowly. Chris stopped and took a wider stance to counteract the swinging motion. “Sorry, I didn’t know…” Yeah, what did he not know? What was happening with Harry? “Are you afraid of heights?”

Harry didn’t seem to be able to speak. He just shook his head.

Chris crouched down before him. “Hey, it will be fine. This happens. It’s just a momentary standstill. We’ll be moving again in no time.” He thought hard of other things to say. “It was probably just some stupid child that couldn’t get out in time, so they had to stop the ski lift. Nothing to worry about.”

But Harry didn’t relax. Chris wasn’t even sure he had heard him. “Harry?” Harry’s gaze finally wandered to Chris. “Are you alright, mate?”

“I don’t know.” He seemed to wake up from his daze but that didn’t mean he was getting any better. His breathing started to quicken and his face grew even paler.

“Everything’s alright,” repeated Chris and looked around helplessly. He didn’t know what would help Harry at this moment. Harry’s hands were shaking, so Chris took them in his. That forced Harry’s attention on him. Trying to sound steadfast he said, “Listen to me. We’re fine. We’re safe. Nothing is going to happen.”

To his surprise, this seemed to work. Harry’s face looked less panicky. Chris took a deep breath and gestured for Harry to copy him. Together they practised breathing slowly in and out for a while. Harry’s breaths were still shaky, but finally he was calming down. Too late Chris realised he was still holding Harry’s hands and let go of them in a hurry. Instead, he sat down next to Harry and put a – he hoped – soothing hand on his back.

“Better?”

Harry just nodded and leaned his head back on the glass with a small sigh. His eyes were closed. If Chris hadn’t known what had just happened, he’d almost describe it as peaceful. Harry’s lashes cast a shadow on his cheekbones, the fine veins on his lids prominent in the sunlight. Now they fluttered open. Quickly Chris averted his gaze. He didn’t want Harry to think he had been staring. Which he most definitely hadn’t.

He fixed his eyes on a tree in the distance. “So, what just happened?” Chris couldn’t help his curiosity.

“I just get like that sometimes. In new stressful situations. Or apparently, potentially dangerous ones.” Harry shrugged. He still wasn’t quite back to his normal self. He looked exhausted. “I’m sorry.”

“Nothing to be sorry for,” Chris hurried to say. “I’m glad you feel better.” He smiled tentatively at him.

“Thanks for your, uhm…” Harry seemed to be searching for an appropriate word. Handholding? Oh no, he knew he shouldn’t have done that. Chris could feel his ears grow hot. “Help,” Harry finished.

“Oh, yeah no problem. Bro,” he added for the sake of it. Luckily Chris’ ears weren’t on display for the rest of the world to see as they had taken on a worrying shade of red. He looked down at the metal floor and tried to will the gondola into taking up its function again, but this time it didn’t want to listen. No cable-car-whisperer then. 

Chris considered Harry’s hunched form. “Do you still want to meet up with the others? Or would you rather go home?”

Harry sat up straighter to show how much better he was feeling. “No no, I still want to go out. Once I’m back on the snowboard I’ll be as good as new.” He waved Chris’ concerns off and put on a brave face.

“Okay…” Chris wasn’t convinced but before he could voice his doubts, with an abrupt jolt the gondola started ascending again. He could see the relief wash over Harry’s face and decided to say nothing.

Back at the top they put their boards on again and made their way down. Without really talking about it they skipped the jumps and thus soon arrived at the bar, quickly depositing their boards and heading in.

“Ey, there they are,” shouted Will from the table he was stood on. Their assumption that it didn’t take longer than half an hour to get pissed seemed to be correct. Though they had taken much longer than half an hour due to the ski lift incident.

“What took you so long? Having a shag in the bushes?” Cal seductively wiggled his eyebrows. Again, Chris was glad for his helmet.

“Exactly, mate,” answered Harry and jokingly slapped Chris’ butt on the way over to the table. Now Chris’ blush finally reached his face. He played it off by laughing and sat down next to Chip, ordering a beer.


	2. Chapter 2

After a wild night of dancing on the tables and screaming out the lyrics of obscure après ski songs, the guys made their way back to their private lodge around 1 am. They had to walk through the whole village and wouldn’t you know, their drunk asses couldn’t shut up. More than a few grumpy Italians shouted ‘Vaffanculo, è l’una di notte!’ and ‘Silenzio, figli di merda!’ out their windows. Chris assumed they were being insulted and probably their mothers too. But he didn’t care. Even though he had begun drinking later than the others, his blood alcohol level had caught up fast. With the exception of Cal, who was totally out of it. He stumbled more than walked and was still singing along to ‘Cotton Eye Joe’. Not very well at that. While the others had gone ahead, Chris and Harry walked next to Cal to ensure he wouldn’t keel over.

“Where did you come from, where did you go? Where did you come from, Cotton Eye… Ah guys, I can’t anymore”, slurred Cal and let himself fall into a snow pile at the side of the road. A little annoyed, they stopped.

“Come on, Cal.” Harry held out his hand to help him up. “We’re almost there.”

“Nah, just leave me here.” Cal rolled over and buried his face in the snow. “I’m just gonna sleep in this cold wet… thing.”

“Snow?”, Chris suggested.

“Yeah yeah, that’s it.” He grinned happily, snow tumbling into his mouth.

Chris gave Harry an exasperated look. Cal was such a drama queen when he was drunk. “I take his left arm, you take his right. Let’s carry this big baby home.” Together they heaved big Calfreezy up and started walking the last few hundred meters.

“Last time he got that drunk he fell asleep on the tube and the cleaning staff had to throw him out at the last station”, said Harry, mirth lighting up his eyes.

“Was he going home alone?”

Harry chuckled. “No.”

Chris almost dropped Cal. “You left him in the train?”

“Yeah, oops. We thought it was funny at the time.” After a second he added, “Honestly, I still think it’s funny. He had no idea where he was. He called us, telling us about a terrifying woman on the train and then we had to call him an Uber.”

“I’m glad you’re my friends”, said Chris sarcastically but the thought of a cleaning lady scaring away a drunk Cal still made him laugh. He looked over at Harry who was looking at him. In the dark, he couldn’t make out his face very well, but still, his stomach fluttered a little. He was suddenly aware that they were practically alone since Cal couldn’t be counted at his state. Chris trained his eyes on their feet making slow progress toward the lodge. He should really stop staring at Harry. It was becoming sort of obvious how stupidly in love with him he was. Ugh, Chris get it out of your head. It’s never going to happen. You’re friends, he doesn’t like you that way.

Back at the lodge, they dropped Cal on his bed in the room them three shared and got ready for bed themselves. Thanks to the alcohol it didn’t take long for Chris to fall asleep, even though a little distracted by Harry’s body in the bunk bed just above him.

Once they managed to get themselves out of bed the next morning, they spent most of the day snowboarding and by five they retired their boards and traded them for beers. It had gotten pretty late and they had somehow ended up at a club they hadn’t been at before. That mixed with the many shots they had had, left Chris disoriented. The German girl he had been chatting to had to leave and now he was standing alone at the bar. He ordered a bottle of water and decided it was time to collect his friends and make their way home.

After a quick search of the dancefloor, he headed to the second storey and found Will and Theo standing at a table, looking rather defeated. They immediately agreed to his suggestion of going home and helped him hunt down the others. Will sent them a quick text to which they replied they were already outside on the backside of the club. What they had neglected to mention though, was that they were smoking weed with two rather scary looking Italians. It wasn’t necessarily that their stature made them scary, more the vibes they gave off. Maybe Chris was drunker than he thought. 

He cracked open his bottle of water and offered them to Harry and Chip. Cal didn’t seem to be around. “Where’s Freezy?”

“He went home with a chick,” replied Chip. Typical. Chris didn’t begrudge him his happiness though. Or let’s call it short-lived pleasure.

“Who are your friends?” Will nodded toward the Italians.

“Emiliano and…” Chip struggled with the second name.

“Giulio,” replied the man himself. Instead of a further greeting, he held out his joint to them. Chris couldn’t bring himself to decline free weed, so he accepted it and took a drag. It was strong stuff and he couldn’t stop coughing for a few seconds. With a soft smile, Harry shook his head at him and for some reason that made Chris immensely happy.

After passing around the joint a few times, the boys could finally be convinced to return home. They were quieter tonight, but Chris couldn’t tell if it was the weed’s fault or if it was Cal’s absence. What he could tell though was that the stars seemed unusually bright and the way home seemed unusually short. He was walking next to Harry and whenever their hands accidentally touched, he got a little jolt out of it. Maybe their hands too met each other unusually often.

Theo, Chip and Will went up to the second floor, where they shared the attic room. Chris followed Harry down the corridor on the first floor to their room. Harry opened the door.

“Oh Lord above!” And Harry shut the door again.

“What?” Chris stared uncomprehendingly at a wide-eyed Harry. “What is happening?”

“Freezy is in there.” Harry looked mortified. “With a chick. Having sex.”

Chris burst out laughing. Not only at the fact that Cal was having sex in the room they needed to sleep in but also at Harry’s horrified facial expression.

“I just saw his bare ass cheeks.” Harry still couldn’t believe it. He finally took his hand off the handle. “What are we supposed to do now? Sleep in the hallway? That bastard.”

Though Chris found this situation rather hilarious, he still considered Harry’s question. “Should we wait? Was he like, almost done?”

Harry wrinkled his nose in disgust. “How would I know.” Now they both started laughing.

“There’s a pull-out couch in the living room. I think that’s enough space for two.” It felt risky suggesting it, but it _was_ the most practical solution.

“Sure.” 

Chris deliberately hadn’t looked at Harry as he said it, but he didn’t seem too put off by his suggestion. They went downstairs and tried to extend the couch as quietly as possible.

“You take that corner and on three we pull,” Harry instructed. “1 – 2 – 3!” The couch popped out easier than expected and they both landed on their butts.

Harry let out an amused huff of air. “Wow seems like we’re stronger than we think. Snowboarding really pays off, huh?”

“Bollocks, that was all me,” said Chris and showed off his biceps with a wink.

“Okay, Mr Youtube Transformation.” Harry only escaped the shoe thrown at him by propelling himself onto the couch.

“I’m gonna go look for some blankets while you can think of some more witty comments.” Chris went out into the foyer to check the cupboard under the stairs. When they had arrived, the woman had let them know that anything additionally they might need was in there. To his delight, there were two blankets and even a sheet. As he took them out, he stopped himself before returning to the living room. He took a deep breath. He was about to sleep next to Harry. And he couldn’t afford any weirdness. He had promised himself Harry could never know.

When he returned, he wasn’t quite sure if Harry was still awake. He lay diagonally over the whole couch and his eyes were closed.

“Harry?” whispered Chris.

“I’m awake,” muttered Harry and looked up blearily. He got up and even helped Chis put the sheeting on the sofa.

As they lay down on it, Chris noticed how small it actually was, way smaller than a double bed. He could hear Harry breathing a few centimetres away from him.

“I can’t believe tomorrow is our last day,” Harry said. “The week really flew by.” 

“Yeah… But it was so much fun. I don’t get to hang around with all of you that often.” Chris said ‘all of you’ but really, he meant Harry.

“We should really change that. You should move to London.”

“Maybe I should.”

“No seriously, mate! London’s great and we would get to hang out all the time.” He stopped himself, flustered and quickly added, “And it would be great for your Youtube career with collabs and that.”

Chris had already been thinking about it for a while. It was just that he’d miss his family a lot. He actually liked spending time with them, which many people his age couldn’t understand. “I’ve been considering it.”

“Really?” Harry sounded genuinely excited.

Chris smiled to himself. “Yes, really.” It was quiet for a second.

“I’ve been meaning to tell you,” Harry began. “I wanted to thank you again, for Friday in the gondola.”

Chris turned his body so he could see Harry’s face.

“Thanks for taking it seriously and somehow doing exactly the right things. I was pretty out of it afterwards and I haven’t been able to find the right moment to thank you. So, thank you. I don’t know what I would have done without you.” Harry’s eyes were soft. Chris’ heart grew soft. He felt like melting.

His voice was raspy when he spoke. “I’m glad you weren’t alone. And sorry for being a jerk in the beginning.” He was tempted to reach out a hand and gently stroke Harry’s cheek. Keep it together, Chris. But Harry looked so cute in the dim light that filtered in from the streetlamps outside. “I like you a lot, Harry,” Chris wished he had the courage to say but out came just a sigh.

“Good night, Chris,” mumbled Harry sleepily.

“Good night.”


	3. Chapter 3

“What’s going on _here_?” Will’s exclamation woke Chris. His feet seemed to be tangled in _something_. When he opened his eyes Will was standing over him with a coffee mug in his hands. He now realised what his feet were tangled in. Someone else’s legs. Harry’s legs to be exact. Horrified, he pulled his feet back and the blanket up to his chin.

“Uhm, Cal brought back a chick, so our room was occupied,” Chris explained quickly.

“Aha,” Will said, his eyebrows raised. He looked like he wanted to ask something more, instead he just took a sip of his coffee and returned to the kitchen.

Next to Chris, Harry finally stirred. He was a deep sleeper and hard to wake. “What’s happening?” yawned Harry, scratching his head.

“Get on up! One more day in the snow,” Chris answered cheerily and got off the sofa as fast as possible.

It didn’t take them long to get ready. Cal discreetly led his lady-for-the-night out the back door and by eleven they were back on the ski slopes.

After a few runs, they took a lunch break. Recharged by the food with more energy and apparently courage, they decided to try the black diamond run. Most of them struggled but Theo, Harry and Chris did surprisingly well. This managed to spur Harry on tremendously. Thus, on the lift back up he declared he would now take the off-piste route through the trees and the fresh snow.

“You’re gonna break your every bone,” said Cal, unconvinced.

“Nah, I’ll be fine,” Harry said with a dismissive wave of the hand. “And if anything happens, Theo’s with me, right?” He gave Theo a friendly shove with his elbow.

“No, mate. I’m out.”

“What? Theo, you pussy.” He switched his gaze to Chris. “Chris?”

“Just to make sure you don’t die,” Chris relented.

Back at the top, Chris and Harry separated from the group and wandered off into the wilderness.

It all went pretty well in the beginning and Chris enjoyed the experience of snowboarding through evergreen trees with no other soul in sight. They were in the area in between two slopes but they couldn’t see either. Harry was a few metres ahead of Chris, trying to avoid any low-hanging branches. Everything was fine until Harry noticed a small hill that looked perfect to jump from.

“Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” Harry asked, mischief glinting in his eyes.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” warned Chris, nervously eyeing the trees in the way. But Harry wouldn’t be dissuaded. He went straight for it and jumped.

And landed almost gracefully on his feet. 

“See? Easy!” Harry was grinning. “Your turn. Come on!”

Seeing that Harry had landed successfully and Chris having even more snowboarding experience, he trusted himself to land the jump.

He didn’t.

He felt the solid ground give out underneath his board and a few seconds after, his face connect with the snow.

But his body didn’t stop there. He was propelled into something solid but unresisting. It tumbled down with him. When he heard a pained ‘ouf’ he realised it was Harry.

They came to a standstill a couple metres farther down after softly bumping into a tree. Harry’s legs with the snowboard still attached were sticking into the air. His torso was half-covered in snow. Chris had somehow ended up on top of him.

Their faces were only a breath apart. His gaze wandered to Harry’s lips.

“Are you okay?” Chris asked without daring to move.

“I think so.” Harry didn’t move either. “Are you?”

Chris looked down at himself. He didn’t see or feel any physical evidence of his crash. “Seems like it.”

He heaved himself upright and tried to unearth his feet, which were buried in snow. He pulled out first one, then the other which was worrying since they were still fastened onto the board. Once he had removed most of the snow, he realised how that was possible.

The snowboard had snapped clean in two halves. 

“Fuck!” Chris gaped incredulously at the pieces.

“Oh shit!” Harry looked up at Chris, shocked. “What do we do now?”

They were still quite far from the regular slope but since Chris wasn’t hurt, he could probably walk. He freed his legs from the broken parts and tried to stand up.

Which was a futile endeavour. As soon as he put any weight on his foot, he immediately sank almost hip-deep into the powdery snow. Granted, he wasn’t very tall but still this was outrageous. “What the fuck?!” 

Chris let his upper body fall back into the snow. Harry, who had in the meantime gotten himself into a crouching position, smiled down at him. “Mate, you’re looking rather pathetic.”

Chris gave him an annoyed look. “How about you give me a hand and help?”

Harry grabbed his arm and pulled him out of the snow. “So, walking’s out of the picture…”

“I can scoot on my bum.” Chris promptly demonstrated his technique. It wasn’t very fast but at least he wasn’t sinking this time.

“Ah, come on. That’s stupid.” Harry caught Chris by the arm and motioned to his board. “We can ride together. You can just stand on the back.”

Chris frowned. “Are you sure that will work?”

“Yeah, come on. Let’s try it.”

Chris collected the two former snowboard pieces and shuffled over to Harry. Harry got in a vertical position and let Chris step on behind his right foot.

“You’ve got to hold onto me,” said Harry. Chris awkwardly wrapped his arms around Harry’s waist. He could feel the warmth radiating from his body. 

“Ready?” Harry’s eyes sought confirmation in Chris’s. He nodded and held on tight.

They barely reached the next tree before crashing. Harry lost his balance and pulled Chris down with him. Again, Chris ended up on top of Harry.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to come on to you,” he joked.

Harry opened his mouth to say something but closed it again. Oh no, had he said something wrong? Was he too much?

“Uhm, I didn’t mean like I would ever… I’m not trying to…” he tried to save himself.

“Oh no no, I know. It’s fine if you don’t like me that way. I won’t…” Harry’s breath seemed to have run out. What?

“What do you mean?” Chris tried to process what he’d just heard.

Harry blushed. “You know what I mean. Surely you have noticed how I’ve been staring at you all the time,” he said, looking away.

Chris was flabbergasted. “No, I haven’t.”

“Whatever. It doesn’t matter anyway.” Harry tried to get up and out from under Chris, but he didn’t let him move.

“Wait no, it does matter. Because…” Chewing on his lip, he searched for the right words. “Because I like you too.”

Now it was Harry’s turn to look flabbergasted. “You do?”

It occurred to Chris that he was still basically lying on top of Harry, so instead of an answer, he decided to seize the moment. And he kissed him.

It was a careful, ginger kiss. Chris’ lips barely touched Harry’s, unsure of how far he could go. As if to show him, Harry grabbed him by the neck and pulled him closer. When their lips met again, they channelled all the hope and longing they had buried for months. Chris ran his hand through Harry’s hair and held on for dear life.

Their mouths were at war with each other. Hungrily, each demanded to have the upper hand, wanting to lay claim to the other’s body and soul. When they finally came apart, Harry just whispered, “Wow.”

Chris couldn’t help grinning from ear to ear and Harry couldn’t resist placing another kiss on that stupid smug mouth of his.

“I can’t believe this is happening.” Chris put a finger to his mouth as if needing evidence that this was not just a dream. 

Gently, Harry took those fingers and put them to his mouth. “You better believe it, because you ain’t getting rid of me.”

After a few clumsy attempts of getting up again, they finally made it onto the snowboard. This time Chris put one of his feet in between Harry’s legs and his arms around his torso. The side of his face was pressed into Harry’s neck. He could smell what he always thought of as the essence of Harry, a bit like a rainy spring morning on an island.

“You’ll have to lean with me when I turn,” Harry said and they were off.

Through some miracle they made it back to the slope without falling over. From here onwards Chris decided to walk since it was the safer mode of transportation. Harry accompanied him to the upper station of the gondola. To keep their pace even Chris had to pull Harry, but even when he didn’t have to, their hands couldn’t seem to let go of each other.

Harry would take one more ride down the slopes while Chris took the cable car down to the meeting point. The boys had put in the group chat that they were at the bar already, but Chris had to pay a visit to the ski rental first to confess his mishap.

After he had paid for the broken board, he made his way over to their usual bar. By the door he found Harry casually leaning against the wall, smiling at him. “I was waiting for you.”

“I can see that.” He smiled back. Neither of them was able to contain their happiness. Instead of giving him a kiss as he would have liked to, he patted Harry’s chest, his hand lingering longer than it needed to. “Hey.”

“Hey.” 

Someone shoved past them. They didn’t move. “We should go in, huh?” Chris didn’t take his eyes off Harry’s. 

Harry swallowed. “We probably should.”

“Ah, there you are.” Theo interrupted their eye-fucking. “I got your text. You broke your board?!”

Reluctantly Chris looked over to Theo. “Yes, but it’s fine. No one was hurt.”

“How the hell did you manage that?” asked Theo aghast as they walked to their table on the terrace. Chris filled the others in but conveniently left out any mention of love declarations and kisses.

During the evening Chris was continuously distracted by Harry’s feet under the table and the secret little winks he shot him now and then. By nine-thirty he was getting impatient. After communicating with Harry via looks, he announced, “I’m knackered. And we have to get up early tomorrow for our flight. I think Imma head home.”

“Oh yeah, me too.” Harry pretended to yawn. “But you stay here, have fun,” he added for the others.

“Our flight is at like one,” Will remarked, perplexed.

“But we gotta be there two hours early and the drive there is really long...” Harry was already grabbing his jacket and backing away. Chris followed close behind with an apologetic wave towards their table.

As soon as they had left the bar they broke out into laughter. “Now if that wasn’t suspicious.” But they didn’t really mind. 

They went around the building to the street and Harry took Chris’ hand in his. It was soft and warm. Chris scooted closer to him to absorb any warmth he could get. They couldn’t wait to get home.

**Epilogue**

They were lying in bed together, Cal’s bed to be exact. The room consisted of two bunk beds and a double bed. Harry and Chris had stayed in the bunk beds, but the activity they had just executed required a double bed. Hence why now they were lying in Cal’s bed, sweaty and utterly enamoured with each other.

Harry was resting his head on Chris’ chest and tracing the lines of his abs with a finger. Chris sighed softly.

Harry lifted his head. “What are you thinking about?” 

“The sea,” Chris replied while playing with Harry’s hair.

“The sea?” 

“Mhm.“ His fingers wandered over Harry’s temple, to his cheek, to his jaw, to his lips. “You always smell of it. A true island boy.”

“I do?” Harry trailed a little line of kisses up Chris’ chest to his neck.

"Mhm..."

Chris could feel his skin tingling where Harry’s lips had grazed it. He still couldn’t believe Harry was actually lying in his arms, his mouth about to plant a lazy kiss on his neck. With awe, he took in Harry’s lovely blue eyes, full of adoration. Instinctively he held Harry tighter and placed a kiss in his hair. “I’m so glad you told me.”

“Me too,” mumbled Harry into his shoulder. His fingers laced around his neck and intertwined with Chris's hair. Harry pulled Chris' face to his and kissed him languidly. Chris' lips parted to let Harry's tongue slip through.

They were so caught up in each other, they didn’t notice the bedroom door opening.

"Oh my… Lads, put that away. My poor eyes!" Cal's voice screamed from the corridor. Mortified, Chris grabbed for the duvet to try and cover their naked bodies. Unfortunately, Harry was lying on the blanket and pulling it out underneath him, sent him flying off the bed. "Oh shit, sorry." Harry frantically searched for something to cover his special area and grabbed some kind of fabric to put over it.

"That's my underwear!” exclaimed Cal, throwing out an accusatory hand.

“Oh God.” Harry chucked it to the other side of the room, once again revealing his birthday suit.

“Lord!” Cal quickly averted his eyes and stared at the ceiling. “I already apologised for yesterday. Is this revenge for taking the room?”

“Uhm… We’re sorry?” Chris was now sitting up on the bed, handing Harry a pillow to cover himself. He checked Cal’s face for a sign of anger or outrage, but he found only a bemusedly annoyed smirk on his lips.

“And I told Will he was crazy. I can’t believe he guessed it.” Apprehensively, Cal lowered his gaze to them and to his satisfaction found their most vulnerable bits covered. “I take it, I’m sleeping upstairs tonight?”

“Don’t have to. We’ll go back to the bunk beds,” stuttered Harry, still a little stumped. “I mean, once we’re dressed.”

“Nah, it’s fine. Enjoy your night, lads.” Cal exited the room with a wink and a sheepish smile.

“Oops.” Chris laughed to himself. He extended a hand to help Harry back onto the bed. A shadow had fallen over Harry’s face. Trying to lighten it, Chris caressed Harry’s cheek with his palm. “Hey, it’s fine. They don’t care.” He planted a kiss on his mouth. “I swear.”

Harry leaned his head into his hand and whispered, “I know. It doesn’t matter anyway. All that matters is that you’re here. With me.” They fell asleep facing each other, their hands intertwined between their bodies.

If they had still been awake they could have heard a loud “I knew it!” from the bathroom next door, sounding an awful lot like Will.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you enjoyed ;)


End file.
